Ch 6 You and Ignorance
1. How is ignorance dealt with in your community? What do you think about "developing a comfort with ignorance"?
Ignorance is dealt with in my community differently. As a member of a military reserve unit we have different dynamics. To simplify things for this post we can look at the coin comparison. Two sides are at odds, where one deals with the question positively and the other deals with it negatively. With the positive folks, the approach is to accept the fact that they do not know everything and welcome the chance to learn. Situations such as the example pointed out in the assignment paragraph ensue. However, the other side of the coin consists of those folks that are know-it-alls. I’m sure anyone reading this post has come across a person that feels they are a know-it-all. The concerns come when the power structure has the know-it-all at higher level of management than the willing-to-learn member. Luck would have it that the willing-to-learn group outnumbers the know-it-all group at this time. …show more content…
My takeaway of the phrase, is asking people to allow for questioning the status quo. This chapter illustrates how ignorance is acceptable, even beneficial, in science. Additionally, the text points out how scale is important by stating “Ignorance can be big or small, tractable or challenging” (Firestein, 2012, p. 87). However, some disciplines may not find this suitable or even uncomfortable. I have come to find that I know far less about far too many things to shut out questions. Lastly, developing a comfort with ignorance should be a staple in some disciplines and a viable option in
1. How is ignorance dealt with in your community? What do you think about "developing a comfort with ignorance"?
Ignorance is dealt with in my community differently. As a member of a military reserve unit we have different dynamics. To simplify things for this post we can look at the coin comparison. Two sides are at odds, where one deals with the question positively and the other deals with it negatively. With the positive folks, the approach is to accept the fact that they do not know everything and welcome the chance to learn. Situations such as the example pointed out in the assignment paragraph ensue. However, the other side of the coin consists of those folks that are know-it-alls. I’m sure anyone reading this post has come across a person that feels they are a know-it-all. The concerns come when the power structure has the know-it-all at higher level of management than the willing-to-learn member. Luck would have it that the willing-to-learn group outnumbers the know-it-all group at this time. …show more content…
My takeaway of the phrase, is asking people to allow for questioning the status quo. This chapter illustrates how ignorance is acceptable, even beneficial, in science. Additionally, the text points out how scale is important by stating “Ignorance can be big or small, tractable or challenging” (Firestein, 2012, p. 87). However, some disciplines may not find this suitable or even uncomfortable. I have come to find that I know far less about far too many things to shut out questions. Lastly, developing a comfort with ignorance should be a staple in some disciplines and a viable option in